The Path Of The Wanderer
by JammyJones
Summary: When Lone Wanderer James and his childhood love Amata are chased out of their home, Vault 101. They must trek across the great Capital Wasteland to not only find James' father, but to learn how to survive when their food, water are not laid out for them. But a delecasy, will they survive and beat the horrors of the wateland? Or will they succumb to the madness?
1. Chapter 1 - Escape!

The Path Of The Wanderer

_So this is my first attempt at a fan fiction, as I am a big fan of Fallout. I'm mostly used to writing my own stuff but I thought considering when playing fallout I usually think stuff up that could happen Id give this fan fiction a go, hope you like it! Rated M for Mature, Or 12 if your in the UK. There maybe a few -love- scenes in a few of the chapters so beware. Just to point out I do not own Fallout, only character I own is my O/C and maybe some others I may add in, if I do you will be informed. The speech in this is changed because I dislike some of the speech in the real game, so I have changed it so it's better. Sorry!_

_Peace :D_

July 13th 2258. I was born to James and Catherine Bourn. After 3 hours in labour I finally came out. Not that I remember that day of course. Dad told me the story enough times I have memorised it. An extremely happy day that was, he would say, but of course, also a sad one. My mother died in childbirth you see. Cardiac arrest. I was born in Vault – Tec Vault 101. Well so I thought. My name's James by the way, James Bourn Jr. They call me the Lone Wanderer.

"And that class is how people used to travel before the Great War" Our teacher Mr. Brotch concluded. He stood at the front of the class, a dark skinned man with tight features and a small build. He looked over the class with the authority that told you, I don't mess around.

"You may pack away" He finished. The class, in unison picked up their bags and began to walk out. "Oh and before you all go!" He called after us. "Don't forget you all have your G.O.A.T exams tomorrow! Don't be late!" Followed by groans from most people. As I was walking out I was pulled around by the shoulder. I span around only to be embraced quickly by Amata. My childhood love, if you like. We had been besfriends since before we could remember and had started dating almost a year ago. She pulled away and smiled. "Surprise!" She said with a laugh. She had a small, cute face with tanned skin and long, brown hair tied up in a bun. I smiled at her and put my arm around her as we walked.

"I expected you to be Butch" I said. "Your lucky I didn't go for the head butt"

"Well the day you head butt me is the day the kissing stops" She replied. Trying to look at me seriously, but I had known her for so long I knew she was joking.

"I'll keep that in mind" I said, quickly pulling her into another embrace. There was noone in any of the corridors at the moment as we were kissing. Amata slipped her tongue through her teeth and into my mouth, me following suit as we moved up against the wall. I reached and began pulling down the zip on her Vault 101 jumpsuit. She grabbed my wrist gently to stop me, pulling away from the embrace. "No, not here" She said quietly. "Well get caught, plus..." She stopped and looked to the ground. "I-I'm not ready, not yet." I pulled away and nodded.

"It's fine-hey" I said, tipping my index finger under her chin and making her look at me. "I'm not gonna force you into anything you don't wanna do OK?" She nodded and smiled.

"Thank you" She said, as we pulled into a hug. It lasted a while until we both pulled away. "Come on" Amata said. "Lets go get some lunch!" She took my hand as we walked.

It was soon night time before I knew it. I walked into my room to see Dad sitting at my desk, scanning through my comics and books. "I never took you for a comic type person" I said walking in with a smirk. Dad looked round and stood up. He was a tall man with black hair that was greying. He had a goatee that was the same colour as his hair and he had a strong build.

"Believe me i'm not" He replied. "How was your day today pal?" He asked.

"Average, we learnt about cars and planes in class today" I replied. "Apparently, they used to be able to FLY to other countries!" I laughed, as did dad.

"Good, I need to talk to you" He said, sitting back down on my desk chair. "Please, sit down"

I snorted. "Your inviting me into my own room Dad" I said. "How ironic" Nevertheless, with the look he gave me I knew he wasn't joking to I flopped down on my bed and turned to him. He began to speak.

"So how are things with you and Amata lately?"

The question took me by surprise. I half expected him to say something about the dead rat I put in Butch's backpack. (Classic his reaction by the way, screamed like a girl!)

"It's good, great actually" I replied. "You haven't told the overseer have you?"

"I didn't need to, he already knows"

What?! The whole thing me and Amata agreed on when we first started dating two years ago, was that her dad could not find out. See, he protects Amata with all the power in his heart, and him and Dad don't really see eye-to-eye on anything. So because of that he would flip if he ever found out I was dating his daughter.

"How does he know? Who told him? Why?" I blurted out at once. I was panicking now, I loved Amata a lot. I really did, If the overseer got involved everything would mess up.

"Now, now calm down" Dad said. "I don't know who told him, but we have spoken. He will not get in the way of your relationship. However, he has asked for me to talk to you."

"About what?" I replied. "I don't need the sex talk again Dad, you told me that when I was 12 and that was bad enough."

"I'm not here to give you the sex talk" He said. "You and Amata have been dating for a good 2 years now, so i'm guessing you must be getting serious."

"Nothing has happened Dad" I said, calmly. "She's not ready and i'm not gonna push her"

"I know pal, I know" He said. "But look, what i'm trying to say is, be careful, I don't want to be the one to tell Amata she's pregnant with your child OK?" I nodded.

"Thanks Dad." I said. "I assume the overseer is talking to Amata as well." Dad nodded. I stood up and walked towards the door.

"Thanks Dad" I said. "I'll see you later" I walked out. The first place I had to go was to see Amata, she was the first person I wanted to talk about this to. After all-

"Where you off to at this time of night? Huh?" It was Butch. The vault bully and the person I hate the most in Vault 101. He stood in my path flanked by his two friends. Wally Mack and Paul Hannon. Butch wasn't all that big, he stood at about 5ft 10in and had a medium build. He had slick black hair and a hard face. Wally had a sarge style haircut, stood at about 5ft 8in and had a big build. Paul Hannon was the smaller of the two. He had dark skin and small features, he stood at 5ft 5in and had a small build.

"Well there's noone here to save your little ass now is there?" Butch continued, shoving me. For height, I was the same as Butch. However fighting hand to hand was not my thing, I was used to shooting my BB gun I got from my 10th birthday, not boxing with a bully.

"Lay of Tunnel-Ass" I replied, shoving him back, sending him a bit farther than he shoved me.

"Oh, getting a bit brave are we?" Wally said, speaking up. Shoving me as well.

"Braver than you asswipes" I said, shoving him back, he was shorter than me so he went farther than before. "You must be very brave, three on one, must make you seem huge"

"We're the Tunnel Snakes!" Butch said with proudness. I snorted. "And your gonna pay for what you did to my backpack" I knew he was talking about the rat. Like I said, classic.

Butch threw a punch. However, I saw it coming. I ducked and sent a fist into his stomach. It connected quickly, sending him back, winded.

Wally came next, sending a punch that connected with my jaw. Sending me back as I tasted blood. But his cockiness overthrew him as he laughed. I rushed forward and connected a punch to his nose. The connection was followed with a loud pop. Followed by Wally screaming. I reached up to grab Butch, raising my fist to finish him when-

"Stop!" It was Amata. She obviously needed to speak to me after the events earlier. I turned to her, taking my eyes off Butch, who quickly whipped out his switch-blade and slashed me across the chest, I fell back, bleeding.

"Stop it please!" Amata shouted. "There's no need for any more!" She ran to get in the way of me and Butch. Me on the floor bleeding of course. Butch got up and laughed.

"Yeah come on Tunnel Snakes!" He said. "We can deal with this loser later!" They walked of laughing. And bleeding might I say, a good thing.

"Oh my god are you OK?!" Amata said, running to my side. Seeing the bleeding.

"I-I'm fine" I said. Which was a lie, by the way, I hurt like hell.

"You don't look it." She said. "Come on, lets get you back to my room to get you cleaned up" With that she helped me up as we walked down the metal corridors. Amata supporting me as we walked, or, hobbled more like. We reached the room and I sat down on the bed. Amata went over to her wash basin and ran a cloth under the tap.

"You can't stay out of trouble can you?" She said, unzipping my jumpsuit and revealing my bare chest. She began cleaning the blood off of the wound.

"I would have knocked them both out if you hadn't turned up" I said, joking around. I lifted my head in a sarcastic-cocky way that made Amata laugh.

"Aww" She said. "Has big bad James' ego gone to shit?" With that she leant forward and embraced me. Again things began to heat up as our tongues slipped into each others mouths again, her hands ran down my chest as I went on my back, she moved with me as we lay on the bed embracing. Soon enough our jumpsuits were on the other side of the room and we led there, naked.

"James, I think I love you" Amata whispered.

"You know what?" I replied. "I think I love you too!" I smiled as we kissed again.

"I'm happy dad knows about us now" Amata said. "It means we don't have to hide all of the time, did your dad talk to you about...well, this?"

"Aha, yeah" I said. "I think Dad just said as long as your not pregnant he's not gonna worry"

"Oh goody!" She said. We embraced again.

I woke the next morning to the alarm on my Pip-Boy 3000. Exam day. Luckily, we still had time, I rolled over to my side. Laying there, asleep was the girl of my dreams, and I had just made love to her.

"Morning beautiful" I whispered in her ear. Her eyes opened slowly and she smiled when she acknowledged my face.

"Morning you" She said. Pecking me on the lips. "Did you sleep OK?"

"With you next to me, better than any other time" I replied. She smiled and looked away, blushing. I leant over and kissed her on the cheek. I then got up and pulled on my Vault 101 jumpsuit.

"Exam day" Amata said, standing up and changing to her jumpsuit. "Can't wait to find out what i'm gonna be!" She said sarcastically. Really, everyone knew what Amata would turn out as. She would obviously be going down supervisory route to follow her dad, no surprises there.

"Well I hope its close to what I end up as" I said. "I'm thinking, maybe a priest?"

Amata laughed. "A priest?" She said. "Please, your not even religious"

"Exactly" I replied. "I could make a brilliant pastor you know" We laughed. Making jokes hid the fact that I was officially bricking it. I hoped I would get something I was good at, like clean-up or security. Either way, I really didn't want to end up as something terrible.

"Amata hurry up your going to b-" The overseer had walked in. "Oh, _he's _here" HE put too much emphases on the "he's" for my liking, but I gave him a smile.

"I will talk to you later Amata but for now, BOTH of you will be late, so hurry up, your G.O.A.T is a very important exam!" He walked out, clearly irritated about my presence in Amata's bedroom.

"Will you tell him?" I asked her. "About last night?"

"Hell no!" She said. "Ill just say you came in early to make sure I was OK" I smiled and we embraced.

"I need to go talk to Dad, ill meet you in class" I said.

"Ok" She replied. "Don't be late!" She winked as I walked out. I rushed down the metal hallways and reached Dad's office.

"Dad" I said. Walking in he turned around with a concerned look on his face.

"Where were you last night?" He asked. Before I was about to answer he spoke again. "Look, tell me later, you have a G.O.A.T to take, good luck"

"But Dad" I said. "Do I really have to take the stupid G.O.A.T?"

"Yes, you do, now go" He replied.

"Bye Dad" I said. Walking out.

I turned the corner to see in front of me Butch, Wally Mack and Paul Hannon all standing around Amata, clearly mocking her.

"Just leave me alone you stupid Tunnel Snakes!" She said.

"I can show you a real tunnel snake if you want" Butch said. Followed by a laugh from his entourage.

"Having fun are we?" I said, approaching them. Butch had a black eye and Wally had a bandage around his nose. They looked a wreck.

"Yeah we are" Butch spoke up. "And you'll do best to stay out of it."

"You know" I said. "The overseer is going to come down on your gang sooner or later"

"Yeah right" Butch said. "Come on Tunnel Snakes, these losers 'ain't worth our time" They walked off and into the classroom.

"Thanks for getting rid of them, ass holes." Amata said. Hugging me in thanks. "I don't know why they pick on me, maybe because i'm the overseer's daughter or something? I don't know, but thanks"

"Don't mention it" I said. "Come on, we have a G.O.A.T to take" I took hold of her hand and walked into the classroom. Mr Brotch was waiting for us.

"Well I hope you two are ready to take this exam!" He said. "Take a seat and we can get started."

The exam went on. The question's were multiple choice and more of a 'your opinion' answers. Easy peasy. After around 5 questions the exam ended. I stood up and handed my test to Mr. Brotch.

"Well, well, well" He said. "Mr Jones you will be becoming our newest member of the security team!"

"Cool!" I said. "Thanks sir!" I took the paper and walked out of the room. Security, I thought. Not bad. It meant that I could practise my shooting on radroaches and if Butch pissed me off I would have the authority to tell him to stuff it. Brilliant

"Good result pal?" Dad asked as I re entered the medical bay.

"Yeah surprisingly" I said. "I'm gonna be put on security!" Dad sighed at that.

"Well hopefully your not corrupt like some of the other security here" He said. "It's a shame you couldn't have been chosen to work with me here"

"Yeah" I said. "But still, security isn't bad"

Dad smiled. "As long as your happy, what did Amata get?"

"What do you think?" I said. He tipped his head to the side, telling me he knew. We both laughed, today had been a good day.

_Three Years Later_

"Wake up!" I heard inside my head whilst sleeping. "Come on, wake up!" It was Amata, she and I shared a room now since we had been dating for a good 4 years now and with a little help from Dad and some smooth talking we persuaded the overseer to let Amata and I share a room.

"Amata? What's going on?" I said, sitting up.

"We have to go now!" She said. "Your dad's gone and my fathers men are looking for you!" She had fear stricken all over her face and she had tears rolling from her eyes.

"What do you mean my Dad's 'gone'?" I asked.

"He's left the vault!" At that the world seemed to slow down. Dad was...out of the vault? How was this possible?

"Oh my god, Amata are you OK?" I asked. She was crying heavily now.

"It's Jonas!" She said. "My fathers men...they...they-" she cut off and looked down to the ground.

I knew what this meant. Jonas was dead.

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"We have to go" She said. "In my fathers office there is a terminal which opens a secret tunnel to the vault entrance, here take these to get into my fathers office." She handed me some bobby pins and a screwdriver. Which meant she wanted me to pick the door's lock. "And also, take this, I stole it from my dad" She held out a 10mm pistol in front of me. I was taken back. The closest thing I had gotten to a gun was my own BB. Never the real thing.

"Thanks Amata" I said. "I promise to only use it as a last resort" I took the gun. I hoped deep in my heart I wouldn't have to use it.

"I'll try to meet you at the entrance, but don't wait for me" She said. At that she ran off. Turning left at my door.

I walked forward and picked up my backpack. I took everything that was on my table. My BB gun, 50 pellets, A baseball, a glove and some stimpacks. I looked and saw a photo. It was of me and Dad when I was 10 years old. The day I got my BB gun. Anger rose from within me.

"Why did you have to leave!" I shouted, punching the photo, smashing the frame.

I looked at it for a moment and picked the photo up and slipped it into my pocket. I ran out the door and turned right. No sooner had I exited my room I heard a voice, it was security.

"Hey, Freeze!" He shouted. But before he could advance he was swarmed with radroaches. I saw my chance and took it, I ran past him and the roaches and down the hall, passing the scared citizens of vault 101 as I went.

"Now is our chance!" A voice said as I turned a corner. "We can escape, just like the doctor!" The man, who I did not know ran down a corridor, however he was quickly gunned down. Security was waiting for me. They saw me staring and raised their guns, pointing them at me. I however, was quicker. I pulled out my 10mm and gunned them both down, one bullet each. I stared at their lifeless bodied, guilt stricken.

"You shot first!" I shouted at them. "You made me do it!" I ran past them and up the stairs. I was only a short walk away from the overseers office now. I walked slowly down the corridor and heard voices coming from the room next to me.

"He's my boyfriend!" It was Amata. "I'm only trying to protect him!"

"I know that" Said the overseer. "Which is why we want to...talk...to him"

"I don't know where he is!" She replied. "Please stop"

"Officer Mack, one more time!" Said the overseer. The security chief with him raised his baton and readied it to hit Amata.

"Boo" I said, entering the room. The overseer and Officer Mack both turned to me. "Drop the baton" I raised the gun to Mack.

"You ain't got the guts to pull that trigger!" He said. Advancing on me. Amata quickly ran out.

"Oh really?" I said. I pointed the gun at his leg and fired, sending him down, screaming.

"Well I hope your here to turn yourself in young man." Said the overseer.

"Nope" I said, raising the gun on him. "Just give me the key to your office and the password to your terminal and we can all walk away"

"Is that it?" He said. "Very well, don't bother trying to come back after you leave" He threw me the key and told me the password. 'Amata'.

"Oh I wont" I said, turning to leave. "Oh, and one more thing" I said. "You ever hurt Amata like that again and I will rip out your jugular and feed it to the roaches" At that I left, turning to the overseers office door. There, by the side of it was the dead body of my once family friend Jonas. I looked down in sorrow. On him was a holotape. It said: 'To James Jr.' I quickly grabbed it and opened the overseers door. I walked over to the terminal and entered in the password. I did not bother to look at the other files and soon enough found the button that opened the secret tunnel.

Sure enough the pistons began to move and the desk rose from the ground. Revealing a door.

"Here goes nothing" I said. I walked through the door.

On the other side was the vault entrance. An extremely large door in the shape of a cog. I walked over to the control switch and flipped it. The door began to open. Amata appeared.

"Y-You actually opened it" She said. "I didn't think it was possible"

"Me either" I said. Voices came from the door behind me, security was here.

"James i'm coming with you" Amata said.

"What?" I said. "No! You can't the wasteland is dangerous you know that from what we have learnt in class! I wont let you!"

"I can't stay here" She said. "Not after what my father has done to me-to you, James, I love you more than anything in the world, I can't imagine life without you."

I sighed. There was no persuading her to stay.

"I love you too." I said. "I'm not going to make you stay here with that monster, come on"

I held out my hand. She took it and we walked out of the cog door just as security broke through.

"Quick, close the door!" One of them said. The sirens sounded again as the great door closed. Amata and I walked out and over to a wooden door. The door opened and we stepped out.

Into the unknown.

_So that's my first attempt at a chapter of a Fallout 3 Fanfic! I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a rating with criticism or comments! I will aim to add a new chapter every week. So please stay in touch!_

_Peace :D _


	2. Chapter 2 - Burke

_So this is the second instalment of The Path of The Wanderer, I hope you enjoyed the reading the first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Just want to point out the story: "The Wandering Pair" Is what inspired me to start writing Fan fictions so thanks to the author of that! Again, I do not own Fallout or any of the characters involved and this is rated M to be sure._

_Also, thanks to my first reviewer, it means a lot to know you like my first chapter and hopefully I can entertain you throughout this project!_

_Peace :D_

The moment the sun hit our eyes Amata and I were forced to shield ourselves from the harsh rays put apon us for the first time in our lives, blinding us for a small amount of time.

As soon as the blindness had passed I studied out surroundings. When people called this place "The Wasteland" they really meant it as a wasteland. There was nothing, like I mean literally nothing. Hills were still acknowledgeable, but there was no grass, no buildings. Everything we had learnt in class was a lie.

"It's horrible" Amata said. "There's nothing here"

"I know" I said. "I should never have let you follow me, you being put through this isn't fair."

"Hey, that's not fair" She replied. Looking me in the eyes with determination. "I made the decision to come out here, not you, me. Don't blame yourself"

I nodded and studied the surroundings again, looking for some kind of life, or settlement, when my Pip-Boy began to beep.

"What's that?" Amata asked, looking down at my wrist. I pulled the wrist-mounted computer up and looked at it. It was downloading something.

"It's downloading a map!" I said. "Hopefully there is a settlement or something nearby?" As soon as the map had finished downloading I looked through it. All around us was mostly empty space. But not far to the north was a town named 'Megaton'.

"We'll go there" I said. "Maybe someone knows something about Dad?"

"Not a bad call" Replied Amata. "Lets go!"

At that we set off down a path, well, it was more of a slope that had been carved out of a hill or whatever. But nevertheless we set off towards Megaton.

"I'm sorry all this has happened Amata" I spoke as we walked. "Once we find my Dad we will get some answers"

She stopped. "Stop apologising" She said, wrapping her arms behind my neck. "I don't care how bad this place is, or how much shit we get into, if i'm out here, with you, then I welcome it" With that we kissed. For a moment we stood there, in silence, embracing.

"Come on" Amata said. "There will be more time for kissing once we get there" With a wink, we set off once more, until we reached a very large door made from metal, and outside stood a protectatron. Wearing a cowboy hat.

"Howdy-Partners" The robot said. "Welcome-to-Megaton-enjoy-your-stay" With that the doors opened with a loud creak. Revealing a fairly large town.

The buildings were made from metal, the walkways were made from metal. Everything was made from metal. Including the giant, unexploded nuclear bomb sitting right slap bang in the middle of it.

"Well I know I haven't seen you two around here before" Came a voice. Amata and I turned to see a middle aged man walking towards us. He stood at around 6ft tall and wore a fedora and brown leather jacket. I'll be honest, he looked a lot like Calamity Jane. Not that I was going to mention that to him.

"Welcome to Megaton" He said. Sticking out a hand. I shook it. As did Amata "I don't know what it is but I like you two. Your morals seem in the right place. My names Lucas Simms, Mayor and town sheriff...when the need arises"

"Nice to meet you, sheriff" I said.

"Or mayor if that's what you prefer." Amata added on. Lucas laughed.

"Friendly AND polite?" He said. "Were gonna get along just fine, you treat my people right and we wont have a problem"

"Message received." Both Amata and I said at the same time.

"I'm glad we understand each other, now what can I help you with?"

"Two things" I said. "First, what's up with the giant atomic bomb? Is it active?"

"Yeah" Lucas replied. "But I don't trust any of the locals to tamper with it"

"I could give it a look" I offered. Amata's head snapped to the left as she looked at me in question. I could tell she was going to worry about it.

"Ok" Lucas said. "Just don't go blowing us all up. If you do there will be some caps in it for you"

"Caps?" Amata asked. "What, do you mean bottle caps? Why would we need them?"

"What have you been living under a rock?" Lucas said.

"Yeah" I said. "We have just come from vault 101"

Lucas' eyes widened.

"Fresh out the Vault huh?" He said. "Well, caps are the currency used here now, well, here and everywhere in the wasteland. You use it to buy food, water, medicine and weapons"

"Why would we need weapons?" Amata said.

"Jesus Christ you really don't know do you?" Lucas said. "The wasteland is a cruel place, full of things, and people, that would kill you in a heartbeat. Like raiders. You need to protect yourselves."

"I have this 10mm?" Amata said. Raising it.

"That will do you for a while" He said. "But you will need to upgrade after, things out there eat 10mm bullets for breakfast."

I didn't like the sound of that, so I kept a mental note that I would get a better weapon. A rifle or something.

"Anyway, if you need more information" The sheriff continued. "Talk to Moira Brown at Craterside supply, she will explain more. But as I said, you disarm that bomb, there's 100 caps in it for you"

"Deal" I said. "But now were helping you, I was wondering. Have you seen my Dad, middle aged guy, around your height, grey hair, goatee?"

"Come to think of it" He said. "I do remember a guy like that passing through not so long ago, spent a lot of time up in the saloon. Not much else. Go talk to Moriarty, hell have more information on your Dad"

"Thank you sheriff" Amata said.

Lucas tipped his hat and walked off to the right. Amata and I continued walking down towards the bomb, if I was to disarm the thing I would at least have to get a good look at it first.

"You really think you can disarm that bomb?" Amata asked. She had a genuine concerned look on her face.

"Can't be that hard can it?" I said. "I can disarm grenades and mines, the bomb is probably just like them, only bigger"

"But the bomb is nuclear James" Amata said. "It's dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I wont." I said, taking her hand. "And neither will you, I promise you that"

We reached the bomb and I studied it. Half of the head was sticking into the ground and it was surrounded by water. It was huge. At least 10ft tall and 6ft wide. Standing next to it was a man wearing ragged clothes. He seemed to be _worshipping_ it.

"And the gods of Atom shall watch apon us!" He called. "And we will be forever within his ultimate grace!"

Amata gave him an extremely concerned look.

"Is that what happens to people when they spend too long in the wasteland?" She asked.

"I surely hope not, come on" I replied.

I approached the bomb, but as I stepped into the water my rad counter began to tick.

The water was radioactive. Not lethal levels though so I would be fine. Prolonged exposure though, not so much.

Nevertheless I pulled open the sheet of metal and looked inside.

"See I told you" I said. Turning to Amata. "It's just like the inside of a grenade, only bigger"

"Careful" She said. "I prefer my boyfriend to be in one piece"

I chuckled and searched through the components until I found what I was looking for. A small box with a blue wire connected to it. I took hold of the blue wire and took a deep breath.

I pulled it.

Everything was silent. I had done it! I couldn't contain my pleasure and I punched the air with a cheer. Lucas Simmes approached us.

"Well ill be" He said. "You actually disarmed that thing! Well a deals a deal, here's our caps"

I took the caps and thanked him. But as we turned around to go, he stopped us.

"One more thing, here" He handed Amata a small, silver key. "There's a house just up there, it's yours now. Thank you."

"Your giving us a house?" Amata said. "I mean, really? On top of the caps?"

"Yeah" He replied. "The house has been empty for almost a year now anyway, and considering you two are fresh out of the vault with no place to stay, I thought, why not?"

"Thank you sheriff" I said, shaking his hand. I turned to Amata. "I'm going to go talk to this Moriarty guy, i'll meet you at the house"

"Ok" She replied. "See you later" She pecked me on the cheek and went off to the left, up a catwalk and towards the building we would now call 'home'.

I scanned the area, to my right was the craterside supply. I had 100 caps and needed a weapon, that seemed the only place right now. Plus, if anyone decided to attack me in the street, I had nothing to defend myself with at the given time, so I made up my mind and walked towards the Craterside Supply.

As I walked up the catwalk, to my right was a two headed cow being milked into a bucket. I must have stared a bit too long because the guy milking it noticed.

"What? You ain't never seen a Brahmin before?" He said.

"No actually" I replied. I pointed to my jumpsuit. "Just come from the vault."

"My apologise" He said. "Well now you know what a brahmin looks like!"

I nodded my head and walked up. Reaching the door I entered cautiously. The room was not entirely that big, on the other side of the room was a workbench and a cabinate. Stood up against the wall was a fairly big man, he was wearing some kind of armour, and strapped to his back was an assault rifle.

"Why hello there!" A chirpy voice said. I turned to see a young, red haired woman standing next to me, she was shorter than I was and had a small face and short hair. "Welcome to craterside supply, i'm Moira Brown"

"Nice to meet you" I said. "I'm looking for a weapon. A rifle of some kind. I've just come out of the vault-"

"Really?!" She interrupted. "Just out of the vault? Wow, perhaps you could help me with something?"

I could tell this woman meant well, however she was starting to irritate me, all I wanted was the rifle.

"Umm" I said. "I'd rather just buy a weapon and go, I have someone waiting for me-"

"Tell you what." She interrupted. "If you do this, ill sell you a hunting rifle AND a combat knife for a total of 100 caps, which is good by the way, they usually come to at least 300!"

I contemplated. Amata still had the 10mm she took from the vault but would need a backup weapon and I still needed a weapon full stop. Plus that discount sounded descent.

"OK" I sighed. "I'll do it"

"Oh no need to be a grumpy poo" She said. "All you have to do is tell me a little about what life is like in a vault. It's for my new book you see."

"Oh is that all?" I said. "Why didn't you say so in the first place? The vault was nice-cosy. Everyone was friendly, I had a future. Then Dad left"

"Oh no, Dad troubles?" Moira said. "What about food, and water?"

"The supply was endless" I said. "We never had to worry about anything like that."

"OK!" She said. "That's all I needed to know, thanks! Now, if you would like to hand over 100 caps please"

I handed her the bag of caps I had been given to by Lucas Simms. She took them and walked away into another room. A moment later she came back holding a rifle and a knife.

"Thank you" I said. As I began to walk out Moira stopped me again.

"You know" She said. "I could use some help with more of my book if your willing?" She asked.

"Perhaps later" I said. "I have some things to sort out first."

"OK!" She said, "Thank you for shopping at craterside supply!"

I exited the building quickly. Well at least I knew where to go if I ever needed caps. I strapped the hunting rifle to my back and slipped the knife into my belt and set off towards Moriarty's saloon. It was a short walk up a few catwalks till I got to the building.

I entered the saloon slowly. Inside was what your usual bar would look like. Tables and chairs placed all over, a bar in the corner, and behind the bar? A zombie. Yes, a zombie. I approached the bar slowly. Not wanting to get on this things bad side, I sat down.

"Hey, smoothskin." It said. "Can I get you anything, a drink? Something to eat?"

"Um, not for the moment" I replied with caution. "Not meaning to be rude, but, what are you?"

"You mean your not gonna scream?" It said. "Run, or hit me?" His voice was ragged and horse, it was like his throat had been burnt out.

"I hadn't planned it" I replied.

"Well that's a change" It said. "I'm a goule, a result of constant exposure to radiation. Sorry I look a bit scary, I can't really do anything about it, My names Gob by the way"

"I'm James, and I couldn't care less what you look like" I replied. "If your nice to me, I'm nice to you."

"Well, um thanks" He said. "What did you need?"

"I'm looking for my father" I asked. "Middle aged man, about my height, goatee"

"Yeah he was here, he was talking to Moriarty, ill go get him for you" The goule left the room through a door to his left. I turned and scanned the bar. To be honest it wasn't all that big but was crowded with people. Some alone, some with friends and such. All of them wearing ragged clothes. All those except for a man sitting in the corner of the room. He wore a white suit and black tie with a stupid looking white hat. He was also wearing sunglasses.

"Hey kid" He said when I caught his eye. I looked up in acknowledgement. He ushered me over. "Now I know you are new around here, from the vault I gather?"

I nodded. This man was suspicious, I thought, I had better keep my guard up.

"Good, then you are of use to me." He said. "My name is Mr. Burke and I have a proposition for you. You see this giant heap of metal is of no use to the wasteland and to be frank makes it look even more shit than it already is."

"Get on with it shades" I said, mocking him. Whatever this man, Mr. Burke was proposing I didn't like where it was going. I didn't like him.

"Very well." He said, he pulled out a briefcase. "In here I have something known as a fusion pulse charge. I want you to blow up this heap of junk."

"What are you fuckin' nuts?" I said. Losing my temper. "Fuck yourself you shady sunuva bitch I've already disarmed it"

He sighed and stood up. I saw him reach for his pocket and begin to pull out a gun. He thought he had me, he was wrong. I was quicker.

I reached behind my back with speed and grabbed my hunting rifle, pulling it off the strap I brought it up to my shoulder and aimed it at his head.

"Drop it" I said. "Now"

He began to laugh, without dropping the weapon. Which I now saw to be a sawn off double barrel shotgun.

"Your a god damn kid" He said. "You haven't got the guts to pull that trigger"

"Really?" I said. "I killed two security guards on my way out from the vault, you wanna fuckin' try me?"

"Enough!" I heard the shout behind me. It was the bar owner. Moriarty. "Any more of this and i'll kill ya both"

The entire bar had stopped now and was staring at us. People had put down there drinks. Luckily for me they were all giving Burke the evil eye rather than me.

"Burke" Moriarty said. "Get the fuck out of my saloon"

Mr. Burke slipped his weapon back into his coat pocket and grabbed the suitcase. He began walking out but just as he reached the door he turned to me.

"You made a grave mistake today" He said. "Mark my words child you will pay for this humiliation you have caused me"

With that he left and the door slammed behind him. I breathed a sigh of relief and slipped my gun back into the strap on my back. Little known to Burke. It wasn't loaded.

I turned to Moriarty and he looked at me with suspicion.

"Who are you and why do you need me?" He said. His hand twitched as I noticed a .32 pistol in his belt.

"I-I'm looking for my Dad" I said, trembling. "Middle aged man, about my height, goatee"

"My god its you" He said. "The little baby boy, all grown up. Your dad was here all right, been and gone. Where to you ask? Well, I could tell you, for a price. 200 caps."

"You are shitting me" I said. "I don't have 200 caps!"

"Well then we have nothin' more to talk about" He said.

"Wait!" I stopped him. "Is there anything else you want me to do? Anything?"

"Actually" He replied. "There is. A woman, Silver is her name, owes me 200 caps. She lives in a town northa' here called Springvale. Bring me those caps and the infos yours"

I sighed and nodded.

"Fine, whatever" I said. I turned and left the bar. Outside I turned right and walked up the catwalks until I reached mine and Amata's house. It was fairly dark now so the lights were on, I could smell cooking. I opened the door and stepped inside. It wasn't all that big. Over the other side of the room a robot stood. Just like one that used to be back in the vault, it was deactivated. To my right there were some stairs probably leading up to the bedroom. To my left stood Amata, cooking a meat of some sort on a stove.

"Wow" I said out loud so Amata could here me. "Beautiful"

"Yeah it is." She said, turning with a smile. "It's not much but it's cosy"

I approached her slowly with a smirk on my face.

"I was talking about you" I said. She laughed as we kissed.

"What took you so long?" She asked. "I was beginning to worry"

"I went and bought some weapons with the caps" I said. "That and I ran into some trouble in Moriarty's Saloon"

"What trouble?" She asked, clearly worried now. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine." I said. "Just some guy wanting to blow up the town and pulled a gun on me."

"What happened?"

"He got kicked out of Megaton"

She sighed. "Good"

"Tomorrow though" I said. "We have to go to a place called 'Springvale' to get some caps for Moriarty, otherwise he wont tell me where my Dad went"

"What?" She said. "What an asshole!"

I nodded and sat down on a couch that was just opposite the stove Amata was cooking at.

"Shouldn't take too long" Amata said. "I'm cooking some Brahmin meat, you know, those two headed cow things?"

"Yeah I've seen one" I said. "Weird but still pretty funny"

She finished the cooking and dished it up onto a plate for the both of us. She sat down next to me and began eating.

"What a day huh?" She said.

"Aha yeah" I said. "Scary, but...eventful"

We ate then and finished quickly. I lay my plate on the floor and led back. Soon after Amata finished and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Well at least we will always have the memories of the vault" She said. "Stuff like from when we were younger"

"Yeah" I said. "Like the time Butch tried to start on me on my 10th birthday party so I broke his nose?"

She laughed. "Yeah" She said. "Or the time my Dad caught us kissing in the supply closet and nearly ripped off you head"

I laughed. "That was pretty funny to be fair" I said. Then when we had both calmed down the seriousness took over. "I'm sorry this happened"

"Don't be" Amata replied. "If i'm out here with you I'm happy."

We kissed for a moment then. It was nice to have some alone time with Amata for the first time in, like, ever. It felt...good.

We fell asleep on the couch that night. I don't know why we didn't move on up to the bedroom but we were talking into the night until we both passed out. The first night in the wasteland? Check

I woke up the next morning feeling fresh and awake. I was ready, today would be the day I found my Dad. Along with answers. When I awoke Amata was already up and ready to go, the combat knife strapped to her belt. I stood up.

"Well I see you found the toy I bought you" I said. Looking at the knife.

"Yeah I love it!" She said. "Thank you!"

"Don't mention it." I said. "Let's go"

We exited the house and walked down to the main gates. They opened as we approached and we stepped out. The wasteland hadn't changed. The scorched earth still smelt and dust still hung in the air. I looked at my pip boy.

"OK" I said. "Springvale is about half a mile north of here, if we walk relatively fast we should reach there in about 10 minutes"

"Let's get moving then" Amata replied.

So we set off. The ground on the way was uneven and seemed to hiss as Amata and I each took a step. It was horrible. In the vault we were protected, out here, anything could happen.

"Stop" I said, crouching down. In front of us was a Molerat. One of the many disgusting creatures of the wastes. It was sniffing the air on its two hind legs and walking back and forward. I slowly pulled out my rifle.

"James what are you doing!" Amata said, holding my arm.

"This thing is in the way" I whispered. "If I don't kill it the moment we get in range it's gonna eat our tendons for lunch!"

"Well then" Amata said. "If you have to, please, don't make it suffer, it's still an animal"

I nodded and aimed my rifle at the molerat's head. All those years of firing that BB gun at targets and radroaches had better pay off. I thought.

I steadied my breathing and aimed carefully. I pulled the trigger. Blood erupted from the creatures head and covered the ground around it. The molerat hit the floor quickly not making a sound. I sighed.

"That didn't feel good" I said. "That felt like the wrong thing to do"

"It probably was" Amata said. "From now on we only attack things that attack us. OK?"

"OK, I promise" I said. Returning my rifle to the sling on my back. We continued on. Thankfully we didn't run into anything else on the way to Springvale.

Once we reached the town we realised the impact of the 2077 great war. Every house in the town was destroyed. However there was one house that was untouched.

"There" I said. Pointing at the house. We began to approach it. Then all hell broke loose. I felt a stabbing pain hit my shoulder. Almost as if someone had punched me, but at the same time shoved a knife into it. I fell back.

"Shit!" I screamed. I had been shot.

In the distance I could see three people approaching. All wearing Pre war hockey helmets and carrying hunting rifles. I knew what these were, Lucas had mentioned them when we had entered Megaton. These were raiders.

"Well well well" One of them said. "Look what we have here"

"Two vaultees?" Another said. "Fresh out the vault? It's our lucky day!"

"Oh yes!" The third said. "The boy we can kill and take his stuff, the girl. Well, pretty thing like you can't go to waste can it?"

All three began to laugh as one raider began to approach Amata. The other two focused also on her. My chance was then. I reached out for my rifle and aimed it at the one closest to me. I had trouble pulling the trigger, I mean, this was another human being. But then a thought came to mind. Them, hurting Amata. I was not going to let that happen. I aimed and fired. The bullet flying through the air and blowing clean through his neck, sending him, or her, to the ground choking on their own blood. I had ruptured the raiders jugular.

The raider approaching Amata stopped and looked at me in shock. Amata saw this chance and pulled out her knife. Without hesitating she plunged it into his temple and he fell to the floor. She ripped out the knife and we both turned to the third and final raider. He looked at me, to Amata, then back to me. Then ran. I didn't try to shoot him. When I shot the other raider the recoil of my rifle had hit me square in the bullet wound. Making me fall back in pain.

"Oh my god!" Amata screamed, running to my side. "You've been shot!"

"I'm fine" I said. Sitting up. "Nothing a stimpack wont fix" I pulled a stimpack from my bag and injected it into my shoulder. Within seconds the bleeding had stopped.

"Lucky the bullet went all the way through" I said. "Are you OK?"

Amata had turned away now. She was staring at the body of the raider she had killed. Her eyes wide with fear.

I approached her slowly. "You did the right thing Amata" I said. "There was nothing else you could do"

"Maybe we could have reasoned with them?" She said. "Did we really have to kill them?"

"It was either that or they kill me and take you" I said. "There was no reasoning"

She nodded. I crouched down and searched through the body of the dead raider.

"What are you doing?" Amata asked.

"He doesn't need it any more" I said. "Here" I threw her a bottle of purified water. She caught it and looked it over.

"What about you?" She asked with concern.

"Your more important" I said. On him the raider also had 2 stimpacks and some ammo for my hunting rifle. The second raider had 20 caps and a bottle of purified water on him. I took it.

"Let's go" I said. "It's almost 3pm already and I don't wanna be out here at night"

We approached the untouched house and slowly entered. It seemed to be empty.

"Split up" I said. "Just call if we need each other."

"OK" She said. "Be careful"

"You too" I said. As we spilt. I entered the kitchen and looked around. It was a mess. Empty syringes sat everywhere as well as empty packets of mentats an buffout. Mentats I was familiar with. The Tunnel Snakes used to go around the vault selling them. I smiled at the thought of the vault. Which stopped me from noticing the woman with a knife sneaking up on me.

Suddenly an arm wrapped around my neck and a knife was placed to my back.

"Who are you?" She said. "What do you want? Did Moriarty send you? Did he?!"

"Silver" I said calmly. "I just wanna talk"

"I'm done talking." Silver said. "Maybe I should kill you now and take-"

She was cut off by another voice.

"Hey" Amata said. Silver turned. "Get your filthy hands off my boyfriend." With that I heard a thump and Silver fell to the floor. Amata had punched her in the face.

"Remind me never to piss you off" I said to her. I turned to Silver who was on the floor now holding her nose.

"Yes Moriarty sent us" I said. "He wants his 200 caps"

"Well he ain't getting them!" She said. "That double crossing asshole lied to me. Tell him to fuck off!"

"Silver listen" Amata said. "If you don't hand over the caps Moriarty will just keep on sending people after you. You will never escape."

"Tell you what" I said. "Give us the caps and we will tell Moriarty we killed you. That way, he will think your dead and leave you alone."

Silver sat up and sighed. "Fine" She said. "Just don't tell him you spoke to me. If you do he'll only ask questions"

"Deal" I said. Silver took out a small bag and handed it to us. As we exited the house I watched Silver inject herself with another shot of a drug.

"Fucking junkie" Amata said. "Fucking bitch, whore, slut"

"Wow, you are really pissed off at her huh?" I said.

"She had her hands all over you!" Amata replied. "I could tell she was enjoying it"

"Your the only woman I want Amata you know that" I replied. She stopped and I pulled her into a hug.

"I love you" She said.

"I love you too" I replied. As well carried on walking. Thankfully nothing else came on the way back to Megaton. As we entered it was getting dark and the centre of the city of metal was empty. We approached the saloon. The lights were on. There was shouting going on inside.

I opened the door to see Moriarty shouting the hell out of someone.

"I'm tellin ya!" He said. "He ain't fuckin' here!"

"That's a lie Moriarty he's just walked in" Said the man.

It was Mr. Burke.

"Well, we meet again" He said. "So soon as well. How funny?"

"What do you want Burke?" I asked. My eyes narrowing, my hand resting on my rifle.

"Your head on a pike is what I want" He said. Reaching for his gun.

I was quick. But Moriarty was quicker. Almost as fast as lightning he pulled out a combat shotgun from behind the bar and aimed it at Burke's head.

"Not in my saloon" He said. " . "

Burke laughed. I was having a serious sense of Deja Vu.

"Shame it had to end this way." He said.

Everything slowed down. Burke ducked down under Moriarty's gun and fired upwards the shot hitting his chest and sending him backwards. I didn't have time to reach for my gun. So I grabbed the knife from Amata's belt and threw it. If it missed. We were dead.

It connected.

The knife hit Burk square in the eye. Almost as if the event was staged. He fell back and was dead before he hit the floor. Amata screamed.

"No" I said. Running to Moriarty's body. "No no no no no no!"

He was barely alive. "Kid..." He said. Struggling for breath. "My...terminal...password...'Lotsamoney'"

"I'm sorry this happened Moriarty" I said. I stepped up to walk over to the terminal. He grabbed my shin to stop me.

"Kid..." He said. I knelt down to listen. "You weren't born...in vault...101"

Moriarty died after that last sentence on his saloon floor. I knelt there in shock.

"But...Dad said..." I began. Amata came up to my shoulder. She was crying.

"J-James" She said. "T-The terminal"

I approached the terminal and keyed in the password. There was a list of residents that had stayed in the saloon. One of them: James (Vault 101). I opened the file.

"Galaxy News Radio" I said slowly. "He's at Galaxy News Radio"

I heard a voice in the room opposite. It was Gob. I turned and entered.

"What happened?" He asked as we entered.

"Gob I'm sorry" I said. "Mr. Burke killed Moriarty"

Amata stared at him. "Sorry, but what are you?" She asked.

"A ghoul" Gob replied. "I don't bite don't worry. And Moriarty was a piece of shit anyway. This place is mine now"

"Gob do you know how to get to Galaxy News Radio?" I asked. Still partially in shock from what Moriarty had said before he died.

"Yeah" He said. "Here, i'll put it in your pip-boy map"

He pushed a few buttons and a new location sprang up labelled 'GNR'.

"Thanks Gob" I said. I looked down to the bodies. "You need help clearing these up?"

"Nah" He said. "Take the weapons and Moriarty's armour if you like"

I looked to Amata to see here opinion. She looked to the ground and nodded. I grabbed the combat shotgun and she grabbed the double barrel. I pried the armour of Moriarty's away from his body. My pip-boy identified it as. "Metal Armour". I put it on over the top of my Vault 101 jumpsuit. It smelt a little but it fit OK.

"You ready to go?" Amata asked.

"Yeah" I said. "When we find him, I'm getting some answers" I was pissed now. Anger had taken over the shock.

"Thanks Gob" Amata said. Gob nodded as he began dragging Burke's body out back.

We set off to Galaxy News Radio. To find Dad.

To find some answers.

_Hope you enjoyed! This one was a little longer cause I wanted to add a bit more content. If you are enjoying add this to your favourites and keep up with the story! Thanks again to my first reviewer. Please give me more criticism, I want to make this project better. Have a nice day!_

_Peace :D _


	3. Chapter 3 - Galaxy News Radio

_So the third chapter of this fanfic! So so so sorry it's late i'm in exam season so I been revising. In case your wondering, yes, they are going well. Wow so quickly this is going. I hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I am writing it. This chapter has sexual parts in it, you have been warned. Again, I do not own Fallout. Do leave some criticism and thoughts on how I did/am doing. Like I said before, I love it!_

_To my Second reviewer, thank you, that really does mean the world to me that you like my story. I am going to be updating this every Wednesday. I promise to get it in on time._

_And to my third, thanks for the support, also, I see where you're coming from and notice now my mistake, thanks for pointing it out. Don't worry, it's not hate._

_Peace :D_

Amata and I gathered up out things. Our next stop was Galaxy News Radio and Moriarty's terminal said the trip was 3 days total and we had to skip through a metro. We set off around 10am and began to walk. Prior to leaving I had sold my baseball bat, BB gun and BB's and used the money to buy food and water. With that, we left.

"Our first real adventure huh?" Amata said as we walked.

"Aha" I replied. "Yeah I guess, hopefully I don't get shot this time."

"How is your shoulder now?" She asked. "It's been two days, has it cleared yet?"

"Almost" I replied. "Still aches like a bitch though"

As we walked there was not many opposition to us. A few molerats attacked and we had to squish a few radroaches but other than that we had an easy journey.

"What's that?" I asked as we approached a building. As we walked closer my pip-boy made a clicking sound. I looked at it. "The super-duper mart" I said.

Amata snorted. "Super-Duper?" She said. "What a stupid name!"

"You wanna check it out?" I asked. "It could have some useful supplies in there"

"Yeah" Amata replied. "Besides, it will be dark soon, maybe we could set up camp, better than sleeping outside"

As we approached we heard shooting.

"Shhhh!" I said in a whisper. "Get down!"

I crouched into a sneak position and approached the entrance of the Super-duper mart. I leant around the corner to see what it was.

"Raiders" I said. "Two of them, shooting some flying robot thing"

"What weapons do they have?" Amata asked.

"One of them has an Assault rifle" I said. Looking at the one shooting at the flying robot. "The other has the same rifle as me"

"You think we can get the jump on 'em?"

"Yeah, ill take out one sneakily, go around the other side and run in when the other is focused on me."

"Ok, give me a minute"

"Be careful"

She snuck off. I studied what the raiders were doing. They seemed to be joking around with the robot, playing with it. Having competitions and such. I checked the time. Amata should be there by now. So I took aim.

I remembered what Dad had taught me when I was 10. "Shoulders back. Close one eye. Make sure you have the butt in the right place. Otherwise you will dislocate your shoulder."

I took aim. I thought of Dad. Pulled the trigger.

I missed.

"Shit!" I said. Both raiders stopped firing at the flying robot and looked my way. They looked at each other and smiled. Both began advancing, laughing and aiming their weapons.

I pulled back the cock on the rifle and aimed again. This time my bullet connected. It hit the closest raider in the chest with such force he was thrown off his feet and landed face down in the dirt.

The second raider raised his assault rifle and began to spray wildly whilst running towards me.

Again I pulled back the cock and took aim. I felt a bullet fly past my head, a little too close for my liking. I fired, this time landing a perfect shot in between the eyes, sending the raider back dead before he hit the ground.

I looked around. Where was Amata? I wondered. Then, almost on cue. I heard a scream. Her scream. I ran towards where it had came from. Rounding a corner I was met with a scene that will be stuck in my head for the rest of my life.

There was a third raider, and he was on top of Amata, forcing himself onto her. He had taken off his shirt and was attempting to remove her jumpsuit.

I lost it.

I ran, with so much rage, so much hate, inside of me I was completely oblivious to everything around me. I tackled the raider to the ground and climbed on top of him. I began to hit him. Once, twice, three times, four. Over and over again. I did not acknowledge that this was a human being. I just kept hitting him. He was dead a long time before I had stopped. My knuckles bleeding and my forehead sweating I dropped to the floor.

I turned to see Amata. She had her knees up to her face and was crying heavily. I approached her slowly.

"I'm sorry you had to see that 'mata" I said. "I just-" I was cut off by Amata, she got up, ran over and threw herself to hug me. Still crying.

"J-James" She said. "H-he came out of nowhere James he he tried t-to-" She broke of and started crying again.

I pulled away slightly and looked her in the eyes. Making sure she was looking at me.

"Listen to me Amata" I said. "I promise you. Even if it kills me, I will never let anything-anyone hurt you. I mean that"

She nodded and sniffed. "Thank you so much" She said. "If you hadn't come at that time, I-I don't know what I would have done."

"It's fine." I said. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that, I lost it"

"I know" She replied. "Don't worry, I know you were angry."

"Come on" I said. "Let's go"

I took Amata's hand and we approached the entrance of the Super-duper mart. I put my ear to the door and listened.

"There's people inside" I said.

"Raiders?" Amata replied.

"Probably" I said. "More fun if there is"

We opened the door slowly and were met by almost a bomb site, trolleys and empty cans were thrown everywhere. There was no light, other than the suns that reached through the broken windows. To our left however was a sight I was surprised to see.

"Amata look!" I whispered. "Nuka – Cola!"

"Wow they have that out here?" She asked.

"Apparently" I said. I stuck my hand up through the hole in the bottom of the machine and felt my hand touch something.

"Got one!" I said. "Wait, no, two!" I removed my hand holding 2 bottles of the dreamy beverage. I threw one to Amata and we both drunk. My rad counter ticked as I finished it.

"Figures" Amata said. "It's irradiated."

"Well at least it's not lethal" I replied. Then suddenly I heard voices approaching. "Shhh! Down!" I said, going into a sneak position once more. Amata and I hid on either side of the archway that lead into the shop floor. I heard two voices.

"You heard from outside yet?" One said.

"Nope" Replied the other. "Think we should check?"

"Yeah, lets go" The first said.

Raiders, two of them. I signalled to Amata what to do. We had the element of surprise on our side and we were gonna use it. Without missing this time.

The two raiders rounded the corner and we pounced, quick and as silent as a cat.

Amata quickly disposed of her raider, quickly plunging the knife into the side of his head he dropped to the floor. It took longer for me. I was more effective with a gun than I was hand to hand and as I didn't have a knife like Amata did I had to strangle him to death. I made sure to cover his mouth and his windpipe accordingly. After a few minutes of struggling he went limp and I dropped him.

"Search them" I whispered. "They might have some good stuff on them"

The raider I had killed was carrying some .32 rounds, the ones that were compatible with my rifle. Along with some scrap metal which I took. Perhaps I could use it in some way.

Amata's kill was holding some spiked knuckles and a 12.5mm sub machine gun, which she threw to me. Lousy condition but still, could come in handy.

We began walking through to the shop floor when we heard shouting. It was coming our way and we had to think fast.

I scanned around and saw what probably was the counter at some point. It was the only place that we could hide.

"There!" I whispered. Amata and I ran and vaulted over the counter. We backed up against it as we heard to voices pass and stop.

They had found the bodies.

"Find them!" One shouted. "They can't have gone far!"

Footsteps of people running filled my ears as they ran in the opposite direction. We were safe, for now. I studied where we were.

Behind the counter there were shelves, some with boxes on, some leant up against the wall. Some empty. There was also a first aid kit on the wall next to an unopened fridge.

"I think we just hit the jackpot" Amata said. Standing up.

"Stop!" I said. She turned in horror. "They'll see you!"

"No they wont!" She said. "They ran to the other side of the store!"

"But they might come back!" I said. "We can't be too careful!"

"There could be some stuff of use though!"

I sighed. I knew full well from experience; when Amata wanted to do something, she would argue to the ends of the earth to do it. Even against her father. There was no changing her mind.

So I stood up and walked with her over to the boxes and fridge. Both boxes were empty. The first aid pack had a stimpack, a shot of Med – X and a blood pack. We left the blood pack, it was no use to us.

The fridge, now that was a different story. There was lots of food and 3 bottles of purified water inside of it.

"Amata" I said after opening it. "We just hit the jackpot"

We took all of it. Just in time as well, as we placed the last of the food in our backpacks the voices of the raiders approached once more.

"In here!" One shouted. They had found us.

"Shit!" I said. I pulled out my rifle and aimed it at the door. The handle began to rattle at Amata moved to the left side, to get the jump on them when the entered.

The handle rattled again. Followed by shouts from other raiders. They were almost through. This was it. This could go two ways. We kill all of the raiders, and we camp here, or the raiders kill us. It wasn't a 50/50 chance either.

The door slammed open and a raider barged in. I fired. The bullet hitting him and sending him back into the two raiders behind him. Amata rushed forward and dealt with both of them, just as another two rounded the corner. I pulled back the cock and picked off the first, the second took cover behind the wall. He seemed to be the only one left.

Amata rounded the corner quickly. The raider screamed and I saw his body slump to the floor quickly. I laughed.

"Wow" I said. "I'll be honest I never expected us to survive that!"

"Very optimistic then?" Amata said. Walking up to me and placing her hands around my neck. She leant up and kissed me. Whenever we stood like this I realised how much taller than Amata I was. I stood at 6'1'' and she stood at 5'9'' a rather big difference.

"So" I said. "We camping here for the night?"

"Why not" She said. "There's even a mattress for us" She pointed to a mattress on the floor behind me. It wasn't a bed, but it would do. I checked my clock on my pip-boy. It was 11:00pm. Nearly three hours had passed since the incident outside. Still, that image of the raider was stuck in my head.

As Amata and I led down on the mattress together I couldn't stop thinking about the what if's of our lives right now.

What if Amata hadn't followed me? What if Dad hadn't left? What if I hadn't rounded that corner and Amata had been...? I didn't want to think of the word. But as I slept, a nightmare began to form inside my dormant mind. I saw Amata, and the Overseer, standing outside the metal door of Vault 101. Behind them stood raiders, hundreds of them, thousands maybe. The Overseer's eyes began to spurt blood as he dropped to the floor. A blade sticking out of the back of his head.

Amata stood there, no emotion on her face as a raider tackled her to the ground, and began to...rape her. The word pierced my ears like spears and I could do nothing. I was rooted to the spot. All I did was scream, roar at the raiders as they laughed at me. Roar at the hatred I had for them.

I awoke screaming at imaginary people in the darkness, sweat rolling down my face and my eyes bloodshot. Amata bolted up and realised it was me.

"James?!" She said, I continued to pant, staring at nothing. "James what's wrong?"

I looked at her and my mind acknowledged that it had been a nightmare. I reached and kissed her, passionately and desperately, thanking the world that the awful thing my mind had just produced was not real. She kissed back as we lay there. The fear was replaced by lust. I wanted Amata at that moment so much it hurt. We continued to kiss passionately as we ripped off each others clothes. Not a word was said. I was just so happy that I had Amata with me, that I had the one person I loved more than anything else in that godforsaken world, by my side that all I wanted to do was make love to her. Not one word was spoken.

After we had made love we lead there in silence, I was staring at the ceiling, the thoughts of the nightmare still etched into my brain. Amata spoke first.

"What brought that on?" She asked with a smile, as she reached over and lead on top of me, staring into my eyes.

"I...I" I began. "I had a nightmare, about you, about the...incident yesterday"

"You wanna talk about it?" She asked. Not taking her beautiful green eyes away from me.

"No" I said. "I just want to forget about it, the more I keep my mind off of it, the better"

She nodded and we kissed again. Soon however the alarm on my pip-boy began to beep. It was time to go.

"We had better get dressed" Amata said with a smirk. "Can't go walking butt naked can we?"

I let out a slight laugh. "No, your right" I said, standing up. I pulled on my jumpsuit and then over the top of it the Metal Armour I had taken from Moriarty.

I made sure we had everything as we set off once more. Outside was two old vending machines we had missed on the way in. As we searched we found another 4 Nuka Cola's and a Nuka Cola Quantum. Which I had not expected. We had learnt in the vault that Nuka Cola Quantum had been discontinued to to constant drinkers contracting radiation poisoning, but we took it anyway. If anything we could sell it on our travels.

On the way we ran into a couple of molerates and a pack of wild dogs, in which we picked off quickly. After dealing with raiders a few dogs and overgrown moles were simple to take care of. After a few hours of walking, we reached the metro station we needed to walk through to get to the GNR Building Plaza.

"You ready for this?" I asked Amata. "I have no idea what is down there"

"I don't care what's down there" She replied. "Whatever it is, it cant be worse that raiders, right?"

"Right" I said, lets go.

We entered the metro station and the entrance, to be fair, wasn't all that bad. The booths were still intact, as were the ticket gates. However, apon rounding the corner, we heard a spine tingling screech. Looking in front of us was a goule. But nothing like Gob, this one was feral. Meaning either we kill it, or it's gonna eat our brains.

"I got it" I said quickly. I raised my rifle and fired, the bullet hitting the feral goule in the cheek and shattering its jawbone. It fell back, dazed, then looked up again, but by the looks of it, the shot fired had just pissed it off even more. It made another screech and ran at us. I pulled back the cock and fired again, this time hitting the goule in the forehead, it fell back and went limp, dead.

"So" Amata said. "Two bullets kill those things?"

"Well their not humans" I said. "Come on, lets go"

We went on, down the tube where the trains would have once travelled we came across another three goules, easy pickings. I took out one as Amata stabbed the other two, showing quickly in this instance the knife was better than the gun.

We reached a large open room. In the middle was two staircases that led up to another floor of the metro. Another screech was heard, but the goule that made that sound? Was not running for us. It was running away from something.

All of a sudden a low, raspy laugh was heard and rounded a corner was something that you probably wouldn't see even in your worst nightmares.

It stood at 7 foot tall and was wearing a metal armour like mine, it's skin was a dark green colour and it's eyes were blood shot, it raised its weapon, another hunting rifle, like mine, and aimed it at Amata.

"Found you!" It shouted. I reacted as quickly as I could and tackled Amata to the ground, dodging the bullet. I raised my rifle and fired at it, the bullet hitting the monster in the chest. However, it merely flinched and raised its rifle again to fire. I had to jump over and pull Amata, who was dazed from the fall, away from the bullet. Luck however was on our side, the monster had to reload. I still had an extra 4 bullets.

I saw my chance as the monster began to reload. I fired at it again, this time it hitting it in the face, sending blood splats all over it and the floor. It fell back, dazed. I pulled the cock back quickly and fired again, hitting it in the face again. This time it tripped back and fell into the tracks. It still wasn't dead. I put away my rifle and pulled out mine and Amata's old 10mm pistol and approached the platform edge. The monster lay on the floor, obviously dizzy from the fall. I raised the gun and fired five times, hitting the monster in the face. It went limp. Dead.

I ran back to were Amata was sitting. She was recovering as she stood there, catching her breath. I crouched down beside her.

"You OK 'Mata?" I asked. She looked up.

"Is it dead?" She asked. "Did you kill it?"

"Yeah" I said. "It's dead. You need help getting up?"

She nodded and I held onto her waist as she stood up.

"What the hell was that thing?" Amata asked as we walked up to the dead, bleeding body of the newly dead monster.

"No idea" I replied. "I just hope we don't run into any more"

We approached the body, a few roaches scuttled over it but flew off when we approached. I pried the hunting rifle from the monsters hands and placed it in my backpack along with the ammo. The armour it was wearing was far to big to fit me or Amata so we left it. Studying the monster some more now we noticed rips in its skin, red patches where the skin had stretched, and even in death a sense of constant pain on the monsters face.

"Lets go" Amata said. "I can't stand looking at that thing any more"

So we left. Approaching the exit to the metro a few goules ran at us, again, nothing that we couldn't handle. One of them had 10 bottle caps on them so more to add to the bank.

As we reached the gate we heard shooting and shouting. Well, two types of each. One side was obviously the human side, but firing weapons I didn't know what. They didn't sound right. On the other side I could hear more monsters shouting, shooting assault rifles and hunting rifles.

We walked up a small incline and were met by a small war being fought. On the one side, monsters, firing assault rifles and hunting rifles, they were firing at men, I think they were men anyway, who were wearing armour I had never seen before. It made my armour look about as effective as wiping shit over my body and running in naked.

Soon, one of the soldiers approached. It was a woman, she wore the armour however without the helmet unlike many of the others. She had blonde hair tied up in a bun and her face was dirty and had a few scars over it. Her lip was bleeding.

"Civilians!" She said, walking up to us. "What are you doing here? This place is overrun by Super Mutants!"

So that's what they called those things. I thought, Super Mutants.

"Were trying to get to Galaxy News Radio" I said. The woman had been looking at Amata when I spoke and suddenly turned to me. I could see her eyeing me, judging my reach, my build and height. She came to a conclusion and spoke again.

"Well we can take you to Galaxy New Radio providing you help us" She said. "Can you shoot?"

"I can" I said. "My friend can't shoot for shit but is awesome with a knife"

"Ok" She said, looking at Amata again, who was giving her an extremely dirty look. "Come on then, you can use a laser rifle we have spare, I'm Sarah by the way, Sarah Lyons"

We began walking toward what looked like a makeshift base. As we rounded a corner there was a table up against the wall. On it was a strange looking rifle.

I picked it up and studied it slightly, it was in perfect condition and looked really cool so I took it, if anything it probably did better than my old hunting rifle. Next to it was a few energy cells. I knew what these were because they were used for the electricity in the vault.

I loaded the laser rifle and it booted up with a small sound.

"Nice!" I said. Rounding a corner I was greeted by two giant Super Mutants wielding assault rifles. I aimed the rifle up and fired. A long red beam fired out of the end of the gun, hitting the Super Mutant square in the face, sending him backwards, dead in one. The second advanced further towards me, I aimed again and fired, again hitting him in the face and killing him.

"Nice shooting kid!" I heard Sarah shout. "Here come three more!" Just as three more Super Mutants were greeted by a barrage of lasers coming from the rest of the Armoured men and women. They all slumped to the ground, dead.

The attack force advanced on the building as they were met by bullets. All of which were deflected by their armour. The Mutants were soon dead.

We swept through the building, coming across little resistance. Soon reaching a small plaza. At the other end was a building. It's name? Galaxy News Radio.

However, there was a small war going on outside, Mutants vs Armoured men. I ran forward. Amata at my side, firing. A few dropped, I grazed the side of one Mutant and it doubled over. Amata finished it off with a clean slash across its throat. The battle was over quickly.

I studied the plaza a little more. In the centre there was a fountain, on it the dead body of an Armoured man, next to it lay an unusual weapon. It was almost like a small chamber with a nuke inside. Must do a lot of damage, I though.

"Reddin!" I heard a voice shout. "Get away from there!"

I turned to hear an almighty roar. As a wall of cars and buses was destroyed in an instant. The soldier flown back with such force she was dead before she hit the ground.

There, before me, was a creature that I never thought I would see. It was 15 feet tall, green all over, and had a face contorted with pain and anger.

"BEHEMOTH!" Someone shouted. As a barrage of lasers hit the creature, doing nothing against the tough skin of this monster.

I had to think fast, I turned and picked up the weapon the dead soldier had dropped.

"James!" Amata said. "Do you even know how to use that thing?"

"Nope!" I said. "But I'm gonna find out!"

I loaded a small nuke into the chamber. Here goes nothing. I thought. I fired the weapon, the nuke was released from its chamber and it was sent flying towards the monster. It hit it and exploded, a small mushroom cloud forming in the air. My rad metre began to tick and the monster fell back and hit the floor. It was dead. Everyone cheered.

I turned and was met by Amata, who hugged me quickly. I hugged back as Sarah approached. Amata pulled away and walked off in anger. I knew I was gonna get it later.

"Amazing!" She said. "If I had known you two were such good soldiers I would have brought you into the Brotherhood as initiates!"

"I'm sorry" I said. "Who are you people?"

"You don't know who the Brotherhood of Steel are?" She said. "You been living under a rock?"

"Sort of" I said. "A Vault"

"Ah" She said. "Well were kind of like an army, we protect the wasteland from Super Mutants and other mutated creatures."

"I see" I replied. "Well, thanks for leading us here"

"Don't mention it" She said. "Maybe we will see each other again sometime."

With that she walked off, the rest of the Brotherhood squad following. Amata approached with a look that could kill.

"Maybe well see each other again" She mimicked. "So you gonna break up with me now or later?"

"It's not like that 'Mata" I said. Laying my hands on her waste. "She was just another girl, your mine, and only you." With that I kissed her. By her response she had calmed down

"Come on" I said. "Time to get some answers"

_That's Chapter 3! Again, I am really really really sorry it's late. But I will try to get updates up every week. Again, thanks to my reviewers and to the two with criticism in them, it helps a lot. See you guys soon!_


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